Hello friends

Things have been pretty nuts for us lately, so I thought I'd share a few iphone pics from this week.

Spurge, ya hear?

Prayer is the rustling of the wings of the angels that are on their way bringing us the boons of heaven. Have you heard prayer in your heart? You shall see the angel in your house. When the chariots that bring us blessings do rumble, their wheels do sound with prayer. We hear the prayer in our own spirits, and that prayer becomes the token of the coming blessings. Even as the cloud foreshadoweth rain, so prayer foreshadoweth the blessing; even as the green blade is the beginning of the harvest, so is prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to come.

Charles Spurgeon

the power of prayer

 

I posted a while back that my big sister was moving to Oklahoma from Iowa, and in my mind that meant...one sister down (literally, moving down south)...one sister to go.

Well, I believe in the power of prayer.

I am THRILLED to say that BOTH of my sisters will soon be living in Oklahoma!!  How amazing and exciting is that?? My baby sister's husband got a job in OKC, so that means a move from Arkansas. This also means both of my sisters and their families will be 3 hours (or less!) by car from my front door.

Could I be any more excited? I love hanging out with my sisters. They are so much fun, and now that I have nieces and nephews, that means more little lives that I want to experience and be a part of. I am thinking of them growing up. I am thinking of them growing up with my kids being their friends.

When I grew up, we spent so much time with my cousins, they were almost like sisters. I have a memory of playing (and getting in trouble) with my 3 cousins for every year that I can remember, and our friendships still thrive today.  My cousins are among my dearest friends, and I so want my kids to have friends that are also family members like I have.  I had long since accepted that this would likely not happen for our family because we were so far away from eachother geographically...but now it seems like it may be a reality after all.

I am so looking forward to all the fun family time we will have in the years to come. Love love you, sisters :)

Watch out sist-il*, I've been praying for you to move closer too... :)

*my awesome sister-in-law

The Christmas Prank

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord!!!  And celebrating the fact that you can eat treats all day and it's ok.   Long live Chocolate balls.

We had a wonderful time at my inlaws house, eating good food, sitting around the fire pit laughing and talking, and enjoying the wonderful prank of Christmas morning...

It started off as a large box, that turned into two boxes...

then into three...

and then this contraption...

which was a can wrapped in nails that were bent to keep the can in place...

.... oh, a beauty!

and another one!

Back to the prank. Then we move outside to get the can out of the nails...

the can is out! and what's inside??....

a ball of duct tape wrapped in wire...

and inside the duct tape ball?

another can...

and another ball of duct tape..

and this goes on and on...

until!!! a small cylinder emerges...wrapped in duct tape...

and we have the prize!  The traditional Christmas roach.

And here they are...the prankee and pranker.

On this morning, love was measured in duct tape :)

You might be a Stone...

Small One

Whatever happened to the good ol' days when our TV shows were so full of heart they made parents cry and influenced kids to become people of outstanding moral character? I had never seen this until a friend shared it with me.  And it came with a warning..."You will cry your eyes out it's so good." I wish I could find 100 more stories like it. Oh wait - that would be the bible.

No matter how our journey seems to us, God has a plan. Even for the beasts. God does according to His will both in the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. (Dan. 4:35)

On an unrelated note, does anyone else think the kid could be Mowgli's great great great grandfather? 

Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGa6oCxhpZA

male model

Poor Norms. He really hates being a model.  He rotates between laying down immediately, running away, or refusing to look at me. 

I really need to find more willing subjects to practice on.